Schneider Electric and Bull Use Their Joint Skills to Launch New IT Energy Audit Services

PARIS, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Schneider Electric and Bull have combined their respective skills to form a partnership offering comprehensive data center energy audit services, designed to help organisations meet the challenge of energy efficiency.

By

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

PARIS, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Schneider Electric and Bull have combined their respective skills to form a partnership offering comprehensive data center energy audit services, designed to help organisations meet the challenge of energy efficiency.

These audit services will provide organizations with the indicators needed to define high performance, eco-friendly and sustainable practices in their IT activities and strengthen their environmental initiatives. Schneider Electric and Bull will combine their expertise in the areas of IT and power infrastructures management.

Under the terms of this agreement, Bull will market the offering in Europe.

Schneider Electric will rely on the leadership of APC by Schneider Electric in the datacenter environment.

"Environmental responsibility is still a relatively new phenomenon in business, explained Paul-Francois Cattier, Vice-President France, APC by Schneider Electric. IT Departments are aware that their datacenters are consuming a growing amount of power, and are increasingly seeking eco-friendly energy solutions, but do not necessarily know how to ensure that this new imperative is a core part of their strategy for investment in IT."

The audit methodology developed by Bull and Schneider Electric has four distinct stages:

– identifying potential economies of scale once the scope of the exercise has been established, – evaluating energy efficiency and confirming opportunities where savings can be made, – setting out recommendations that are consistent with the datacenter's energy profile, – supporting the customer in its implementation of an energy optimization strategy and in the achievement of performance objectives.

"Schneider Electric had longstanding experience in energy efficiency services and projects, noted Paul Hamilton, Schneider Electric's Energy Efficiency Program VP. We have successfully implemented a large number of projects in the construction and industrial sectors."

In October 2007, Bull unveiled its "Bio Data Center(TM)" concept: an innovative approach using an effective combination of servers and services to deliver performance, flexibility and sustainable development. This approach focuses in particular on curbing complexity and enhancing flexibility, in order to simplify and strengthen IT infrastructures, and ultimately reduce the data center's carbon footprint.

In this context, Bull's list of customer references includes numerous projects where the carbon footprint of IT facilities has been reduced by over 40%, and the virtualization/consolidation ratio is more than 15:1, with the number of low-workload servers being reduced and the optimization of virtualized servers to ensure they are working at 80% of their full capacity.

"This latest partnership reflects our vision of the Bio Data Center(TM), said Edgar Snoijink, General Manager of Bull Infrastructure Services and Support. It further strengthens our IT infrastructure expertise and allows us to offer a global and consistent service to our customers, enabling them in turn to implement ambitious green IT strategies."

About Bull, Architect of an Open World

As one of the leading European IT companies, Bull delivers open, flexible and secure information systems. The group helps public and private sector customers transform their information systems, applying its know-how and expertise in three main areas:

– Capitalizing on its extensive mainframe experience, Bull designs and produces robust, innovative and open servers, based on industry-standard technologies; – Building on its alliances with leading ISVs and long-standing involvement with Open Source, Bull develops and implements flexible and interoperable application infrastructures which give business processes the freedom to evolve; – Bringing together recognized expertise in end-to-end IT security, Bull secures data and exchanges that are so critical in preserving customers' business integrity.

Bull has a particularly strong presence in the public, healthcare, finance, telecommunications, manufacturing and defense sectors. Its distribution network and business partners cover more than 60 countries worldwide.

APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in critical power and cooling services, provides industry leading product, software and systems for home, office, data center and factory floor applications. Backed by the strength, experience, and wide network of Schneider Electric's Critical Power & Cooling Services, APC delivers well planned, flawlessly installed and maintained solutions throughout their lifecycle. Through its unparalleled commitment to innovation, APC delivers pioneering, energy efficient solutions for critical technology and industrial applications.

In 2007, Schneider Electric acquired APC and combined it with MGE UPS Systems to form Schneider Electric's Critical Power & Cooling Services Business Unit, which recorded 2007 revenue of $3.5 billion (EUR2.4 billion) and employed 12,000 people worldwide.

APC solutions include uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, physical security and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure(R) architecture the industry's most comprehensive integrated power, cooling, and management solution. Schneider Electric, with 120,000 employees and operations in 102 countries, had 2007 annual sales of $25 billion (EUR17.3 billion). For more information on APC, please visit http://www.apc.com. All trademarks are the property of their owners.

Advertiser Disclosure:
Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which QuinStreet receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. QuinStreet does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.